EFS-Web No Longer Works on Chrome

Even with many months to prepare for the loss of NPAPI support on Chrome, some of us are scrambling when trying to access EFS-Web to file documents and access our docket. Before the launch of Chrome version 45, NPAPI support was still provided, but was disabled by default – only by going to chrome:plugins could you enable it. However, NPAPI is totally unsupported by Chrome now .

What does this mean for patent practitioners? NPAPI is a cross-platform plugin that support a variety of web apps, many of which that we take for granted as a part of our Internet experience. EFS-Web is a web-app (like Netflix) that relies on Java, most significantly to authenticate users. Since Java depends on NPAPI to function, EFS-Web no longer works on Chrome.

What’s the solution? Don’t use Chrome. Oracle, which distributes Java, also recommends this. There are plenty of alternatives to Chrome, such as Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Safari, or Internet Explorer. Since Firefox and Internet Explorer have consistency issues on my machine, Opera has been my browser of choice for EFS-Web.